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Virtual data rooms in Massachusetts

Virtual data rooms for Massachusetts firms

Massachusetts has 2,359 real estate offices, 2,555 accounting and tax firms, 3,920 law offices and 2,862 securities and investment firms with paid employees. Our read of its breach notice rule covers two state offices to tell, a two-part trigger, and limits on what the resident notice may say. ShareAndGo is a virtual data room for the documents these firms share during deals, audits and legal matters.

The firms that share confidential documents in Massachusetts

County Business Patterns counted 183,767 employer establishments in Massachusetts in 2023. Per person, among the 50 states and DC, Massachusetts comes 12th for securities and investment firms, at 40.5 per 100,000, 34th for accounting, tax, bookkeeping and payroll firms, at 36.2, and 38th for offices of real estate agents and brokers, at 33.4. Its 3,920 law offices, 55.5 per 100,000, rank 10th.

These are mostly small businesses. 2,851 of the state's law offices and 1,911 of its securities and investment firms have fewer than five employees.

  • Offices of lawyers: 3,920
  • Accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping and payroll services: 2,555
  • Securities and investment firms: 2,862
  • Corporate and regional managing offices: 991
  • Offices of real estate agents and brokers: 2,359

Where those firms are

By county, Suffolk County leads with 865 law offices, ahead of Middlesex County (732), Norfolk County (527) and Essex County (426). Those four hold 65 percent of the state's total.

Our Boston page goes through its figures in detail.

What sets Boston apart

Against the national mix, Boston runs heaviest in computer and electronic products: 490 establishments, 2.7 times the share you would see across the country; ground passenger transportation (626, 1.9 times) and publishing, including software publishing (945, 1.8 times) come next.

How Massachusetts compares

The Census Bureau estimated Massachusetts's population at 7,136,171 in July 2024, up 1.5 percent from the April 2020 base of 7,033,132.

On law offices per 100,000 residents, Massachusetts sits next to Colorado at 58.1 and Oklahoma at 55.0, against 55.5 here. Across the 50 states and DC the combined rate is 49.1.

Small offices make up 73 percent of the state's law offices, against 72 percent across the 50 states and DC.

Massachusetts's breach notice rule

Massachusetts covers breaches in General Laws chapter 93H, section 3, with definitions in section 1.

Notice goes, as soon as practicable and without unreasonable delay, to the attorney general, to the director of consumer affairs and business regulation, and to the affected resident.

The two state offices also receive a sample copy of the consumer notice. There is no resident count that switches the state notice on; it travels with the resident notice.

Two ways the duty is triggered

The duty arises when a business knows or has reason to know of a breach of security, or knows or has reason to know that a resident's personal information was acquired or used by an unauthorized person or used for an unauthorized purpose.

A breach of security is itself defined as unauthorized acquisition or use that creates a substantial risk of identity theft or fraud against a resident. The second trigger stands on its own, so the substantial-risk test does not answer every case.

Our Massachusetts breach notification page sets out the data elements and the rule in full, and says which text we checked. This is general information, not legal advice.

What a ShareAndGo room gives a Massachusetts team

After an incident, a precise view of file activity is valuable.

For documents you share through ShareAndGo, the activity log records every view and download, and watermarked view-only pages carry the reader's email address and the date.

The watermark is a per-room setting, on by default. The log is chained, exportable as CSV, and also covers invitations and changes. Because groups see only their own folders, the set of possible readers for any document is defined in advance.

The courts and regulators behind Massachusetts paperwork

Federal cases from Massachusetts are heard in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, whose Boston courthouse is the John J. Moakley Courthouse. CPAs practicing in Massachusetts are licensed by the Massachusetts Board of Public Accountancy.

Massachusetts FAQ

How many law offices are there in Massachusetts?
County Business Patterns 2023 counted 3,920 offices of lawyers with paid employees in Massachusetts, 2,851 of them with fewer than five employees. Suffolk County has the most, 865.
Which Massachusetts offices are notified?
The attorney general and the director of consumer affairs and business regulation.
Does a resident count apply to the state notice?
No threshold applies; the state notice accompanies any breach requiring notice to residents.
Do people I share documents with need an account?
No. Readers confirm their email with a six-digit code, with no account to create.

Massachusetts metros

Boston, MA

Data rooms for Boston's 2,967 law offices and 1,863 accounting, tax, bookkeeping and payroll firms, with audit trails and view-only access.

Related

Massachusetts data breach notification law

About the figures on our location pages